How are we going to get out of this? We have an army of undead all around and god knows where we are! I know that there is little to no chance of us surviving, even if we make it through this challenge, there will just be another waiting for us. And while the enemy grows with each fallen survivor our numbers only grow smaller, and our resources dwindle more and more. What’s the point in fighting, if there’s no hope of victory?

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Monday, January 11, 2016

Haven Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Things
were tense at Haven after they realised Emma was missing, there was a lot of
fighting, arguing. Some wanted to find her, but others like Nicole were
convinced there was nothing they could do. So they waited, they kept watch for
the others, they continued with their tasks. The one hope they had was when I called
in, they had already assumed she had followed us, or hoped at least. The
alternative was that she had run away from the group to travel alone, and
although she had survived alone before, none of them felt she would be better
off. But the call was cut off, and they couldn’t reach me again. They had no
idea why, I might have been killed, or the radio may just have run out of
batteries. The truth was that Greg had taken it away, and that the radio was
still with his body in the station.

But even
if they knew they couldn’t go after her, even if they had no idea whether or
not we would return, they still prepared for whatever would happen. Nicole made
sure that her station was prepared for any injuries, and had emergency supplies
ready in case they had to leave. Daniel found a way to connect the generator
from the boot of a car, meaning in a moment’s notice it could be driven away.
Jade and Chris built up as much defences as they could. And Lauren made sure
every vehicle had supplies to last us days, even if they couldn’t convince
themselves that it would all be okay, they did their best to make sure it would
be. But even as they prepared a danger far worse than anything we had faced was
inching towards them.

…

Today we
figured out the terrible truth, that there was no escape from the dead. They
hunted by sight, smell, and sound, but when starved they pushed those senses to
their limits, and slowly they marched towards the faintest of signs of living
flesh. It turns out the resistance was lucky, since they were always on the
move they were long gone before any starving hordes turned up at their doors.
But we weren’t so lucky, the other’s had stayed in the warehouse for far too
long, and now their scent had drawn the attention of every zombie 50 km, which
was far too many. Even if we had enough bullets to kill them three times over
we wouldn’t be able to kill enough to stop them reaching the warehouse and
tearing apart everyone we hoped to protect.

There
was only one hope left, and I had to act fast, and I had to act alone. The
others started yelling at each other, panicking, Malcolm wanted to run, and
return with more supplies to save the survivors. Monica wanted everyone to slow
down, convinced there was a logical way to deal with this. Emma suggested we
charged in, using the car as a weapon to trample them all down, but Connor
pointed out that the car would break before they even gotten through half of
them. “I’ve got it!” Lindsey yelled, and everyone fell silent, “we use the
smoke signal, call in reinforcements”

“Would
they get here in time?” Emma asked hopeful

“Even if
they did respond to the signal it’s doubtful they’d bring enough force to deal
with this,” Malcolm responded pessimistically

“It’s
worth a shot,” Lindsey argued, and turned around, “I’ll grab it from the”- She
was cut off by the sound of an engine starting.

I
slammed down on the accelerator, speeding down the hill in the empty van,
towards the horde of dead. This was the only way I could save them, save her, I
would drive straight into their ranks, make enough noise to get their
attention, and then drive them away from the others. But I couldn’t escape, if
I tried to out-run them chances are I wouldn’t have distracted them enough, or
driven them far enough away from the others to save them. I would have to drive
slow enough to tease them, but fast enough not to be overtaken. I doubted I
would survive, in fact dying and letting them waste time tearing me apart is
probably the best chance I have of rescuing the others.

I
glanced at Connor, Lindsey and the others as I drove past, they yelled, and
tried to run after me, but in the mirror I saw them stop, some holding others
back. They knew what I was doing, and I hoped they knew that I had to do it. I
wondered what would happen to them, I hoped they would get to the warehouse and
warn the others of what was coming. But if the other’s realised what was
happening and left before they arrived it’s possible the group would be split
forever. Hell it felt as if we had been split forever. How long was it since we
left for the police station? Too long I guess. And now I felt I was going to die
without ever seeing any of them ever again. But I was doing this for them, and
I would make the same decision again.

The back
of the army of the dead came closer and closer, and I wondered how far I would
have to drive into their ranks to get the attention of those in the front. Some
of the dead were at the back simply because they were further away than the
others, but it was clear that others had fallen behind due to the damage they
had sustained. A few were even crawling now, their legs having been torn away
to mostly bone, or simply torn off all together. I tried to avoid those ones as
I started swerving around them, afraid of them damaging the wheels. I knew that
every zombie I hit would damage the car, and I wanted them all to follow me
away from here, not swarm a broke-down vehicle. But eventually it was unavoidable,
the first one I hit splattered across the windscreen, and comically the wipers
activated, trying to clean it but all it succeeded in doing is smearing guts
and blood across more. Seeing through was becoming difficult, but after a few
hard hits the major body parts fell off and I could see again. I was in the
middle know, and I was surrounded by the dead, and oddly one of the most
horrifying sights I’ve ever seen also gave me hope, as one by one the
reanimated corpses turned and began to stumble towards me, hunger in their eyes.